Author, journalist, blogger, mom.

Main menu

Monthly Archives: November 2012

More than 90 recipes for the ultimate comfort food by Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden

With more than 150 splendid photographs, headnotes that illuminate Poland’s vibrant food culture, and 90 recipes for classic and contemporary Polish cuisine, this unique and fascinating cookbook brings an ignored cuisine to light. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum has lived in Poland since before the fall of Communism, and this cookbook — an outgrowth of her engagement with the culture and food of her adopted country — offers a tantalizing look into the turbulent history of this beautiful region. In collaboration with the well-known Washington-based author and journalist, Danielle Crittenden, the book also tells the story of a long-distance friendship between two women with a love of food at its core, bringing the good, sustaining foods of a Polish country home into the kitchens the world over.

See more photos, recipes (and don’t forget to “Like!”) on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FromAPolishCountryHouseKitchen.

If you’d like to inquire about blogging for Huffington Post, please email Danielle at Danielle.Crittenden@huffingtonpost.com. For all other inquiries, please email Danielle at danielle@daniellecrittenden.com. Follow Danielle on Twitter @dcrittenden1.

With more than 150 splendid photographs, headnotes that illuminate Poland’s vibrant food culture, and more than 90 recipes for classic and contemporary Polish food, this unique and fascinating cookbook brings an ignored cuisine to light. Co-written with Pulitzer Prize-winner Anne Applebaum, who has lived in Poland since before the fall of communism, this cookbook—nourished by her engagement with the culture and food of her adopted country—offers a tantalizing look into the turbulent history of this beautiful region. In a Polish Country House Kitchen celebrates long-distance friendships with a love of food at the core, bringing the good, sustaining foods of a Polish country home into kitchens the world over.

Talk to women under forty today, and you will hear that something has gone terribly wrong with their lives. They have achieved goals previous generations of women could only dream of. Yet women feel more confused and more insecure than ever. Now one of the leading female commentators of her generation exposes the ideas that prevent modern women from finding happiness and points the way to a better future.

What has gone wrong? What can be done to set it right? These are the questions Danielle Crittenden answers in “What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us.” Crittenden is the founder and editor of “The Women’s Quarterly” magazine. In only four years, Crittenden’s “Quarterly” has made itself the center of a new national debate about women. Her views and writings have been cited, reprinted, argued, lauded, and criticized across the country. Mary Matalin describes the “Quarterly” as “one of my most favorite magazines on the planet.” George Will calls it “a bright light,” and even Betty Friedan, with whom Crittenden has sparred, concedes that her views are on “the cutting edge.”

In “What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us,” Crittenden looks at the big topics in women’s lives: sex, marriage, motherhood, work, aging, and politics. She argues that a generation of women has been misled: taught to blame men and pursue independence at all costs. Happiness is obtainable, Crittenden says, but only if women will free their minds from outdated feminist slogans and habits of behavior:

“There are a great many women unhappy because they acted upon the wisdom passed along to them by the people they most trusted. These women thought they did everything right only to have it turn out all wrong. That thewisdom they received was faulty, that it was based on false assumptions, is a hard lesson for anyone to learn. But it is a lesson every woman growing up today will have to learn as I, and thousands upon thousands of women of my generation, had to learn, often painfully.”

By drawing on her own experience and the decade she has spent researching and analyzing modern female life, Crittenden passionately and engagingly tackles the myths that keep women from realizing the happiness they deserve. And she introduces a new way of thinking about women’s problems that may, finally, help women achieve the lives they desire. “What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us” is sure to ignite debate not only across the country but, more compellingly, within the reader herself.

With a college degree from an elite university, a top-level job at the N.E.A., a loving and successful husband, and two adorable children, Amanda Bright is ready to conquer the world. But when she decides to leave her career to be a stay-at-home mom, Amanda finds that her college degree, her professional wardrobe, and glamorous friends and connections are no preparation for her new life. Gone are the days of meetings and power lunches; Amanda’s days are now filled with changing diapers, mopping up spills, and singing ‘The Itsy, Bitsy Spider’ over and over. While everyone else around her is on the fast track, it’s getting harder for Amanda to even remember-or appreciate-why she left work in the first place. Mothers everywhere will laugh and cry along with Amanda as she experiences the daily trials of adjusting to this new life -and discovers that success isn’t always measured in the workplace.

It’s a little-known fact that President Bush — known to his Instant Messenger buddies as “Kickass43″ — has logged almost as much time chatting online as he has clearing brush at Crawford. Now this hilarious collection of imaginary online correspondence between the POTUS and pals sheds light and empathy on W’s tumultuous second term in office. Whether it’s dodging Harriet Miers after the fallout of her Supreme Court nomination, hosting a live online chat with the nation’s schoolchildren to disastrous effect, or the surprising late-night alliance with Bill Clinton (“Ladeezman42″) because both wish to keep Hillary out of the White House, you’ll never look at politics the same way again. Gleefully poking fun at political figures on both sides of the divide, The President’s Secret IMs is wickedly clever, deliciously irreverent, and in the words of Kickass43, “ttly awesum” and “gr8.” Srsly.

Danielle Crittenden is International Blog Editor for the Huffington Post Media Group. A longtime contributor to the Huffington Post, her numerous articles and essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, theWashington Post, the Daily Telegraph, and the Ladies Home Journal, among other publications. A former columnist for the New York Post, she has appeared on NBC’s Today show, The O’Reilly Factor, ABC’s 20/20 and Nightline, and network news shows, as well as numerous programs for CSPAN, MSNBC, PBS, CNN, Fox, NPR, CTV, and CBC.

Crittenden was born in Toronto, Canada. She is married to journalist and author David Frum, a former special assistant and speechwriter to President George W. Bush, and contributor to CNN and Daily Beast/Newsweek. They have three children and live in Washington, D.C. and Wellington, Ontario.